


Grocery Shopping

by Kalcifer



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22236430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer
Summary: Counterweight may be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, but fortunately the Chime is an elite team that is more than capable of taking care of themselves.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7
Collections: Secret Samol 2019





	Grocery Shopping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haxxorbitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haxxorbitch/gifts).



The Chime was lucky. They were between jobs, so when Centralia filled with shambling corpses, they just took to the skies.

Mako, Cass, and Aria crowded into the cockpit to watch news filter in on Aria’s bracelet’s screen. AuDy put in a token protest about having everyone in their space, but from their occasional comments on the situation, it was clear they appreciated it too. Every now and then, Mako announced that he’d heard from another friend or contact, and they all revised their mental calculations of the death toll.

It was terrifying at first, but with time and the knowledge that most of the people they cared about were okay, grief gave way to tedium. It was hard to sustain fear when there was no immediate danger. Eventually, Cass went to make dinner for everyone, which was the first flaw in their plan to keep flying emerged.

Mako had been the last one to go grocery shopping. What this meant was that they had plenty of snack cakes and chewing gum, and very little actual food. If they wanted not to die of malnutrition before the zombies could get to them, they’d need to get some real food.

It should have been a simple mission. Two of them had mechs and one of them was a robot, so unless something went horribly wrong, they shouldn’t have to worry about getting bitten. That just left Mako, and Cass fully intended for him to stay back, at least for this first attempt. Once they had a better sense of the zombies’ abilities, maybe he could come, but until then it wasn’t safe.

Mako, predictably, was not thrilled by that idea. “How are you planning to get anything back with you?” he asked. “There’s no way the Megalophile’s giant hands can carry groceries, and if you’re planning to get out to put things in the cockpit, you’ll be just as exposed as I am.”

“There’s a huge difference between being out in the open for a few minutes after securing the store and being exposed the whole time,” said Cass. They thought it sounded pretty good for something they hadn’t thought of until now.

“Okay, but if I stay in the air until you’ve cleared the area, I can come down and pick stuff out while you all keep an eye out in case they’re smart enough to ambush us.”

“Letting you choose our groceries is the entire reason we have to do this in the first place,” Cass pointed out.

Mako threw his hands in the air. “Well excuse me for not predicting a literal zombie apocalypse!”

There wasn’t much Cass could say to that, or to the rest of Mako’s annoyingly reasonable arguments, which is how Mako came to be atop his hoverboard wearing five shirts as everyone else prepared for battle. “This is kind of itchy,” he announced to no one in particular.

“That’s just because you insist on wearing those terrible fake flannels,” Aria said.

“You say that now, but when the climate controls fail and we all have to huddle for warmth, you’ll wish you had something as nice as my flannels.”

“There’s no way this will last that long,” Cass said. “There are probably already relief ships on the way.” God, they hoped Oricon and/or the Diaspora were that quick to react. Having to ask their family to bail out an entire planet for them would just be embarrassing.

“There is no point in discussing the long term while you are all a week from starving,” AuDy said.

“Technically, we’re always a week from starving,” Mako said. Even so, they all hurried through the rest of their preparations after that.

Once everything was done, they crowded around the spaceport doors. They’d spent the last day flying around the Seabed, avoiding people to the best of their ability, so this was their first chance to see the damage firsthand. No one seemed to breathe. AuDy hit the button to open the door.

Cass’ first thought was that it looked too normal. The outbreak hadn’t damaged the buildings, and it was soon enough that the bodies crowding the streets hadn’t begun to visibly rot. It just looked like the block had lost power and the residents went to wait it out by milling in the street.

They took a step forward, and that’s when the illusion of normalcy shattered. The Megalophile hadn’t been built for stealth, and at the sound of its footsteps, the crowd turned to face it. They didn’t move like people anymore. Some were too stiff, while others moved in shudders and jerks, as if they’d forgotten the limitations of their bodies. Occasionally, one would let out a soft moan. Cass decided not to dwell on the logistics of that. Assuming this mission went well, they’d want to be able to eat in the near future.

“All right,” they said over the comms. “Remember the plan.”

Aria and Mako both gave their acknowledgement. AuDy couldn’t hear them, of course, but they weren’t the one Cass was worried about.

Mako launched into the air, coming to a stop 20 feet up. Aria sank into a combat stance. Cass did their best to copy her. They weren’t used to close combat, but in the interest of not tearing up the block and attracting every zombie in the dome, it seemed best to save their guns as a last resort. AuDy had agreed to do the same, though they were more worried about ammo than collateral damage. Bullets probably wouldn’t be a relief crew’s first priority.

The fight wasn’t graceful in the slightest. There wasn’t much point in trying fancy maneuvers when your opponents were the size of your mech’s hands and literally braindead. Cass eventually settled for flailing in the zombie’s direction and letting the weight of the Megalophile do the damage. Aria at least had a sword, but otherwise she seemed to come to the same conclusion as Cass, sweeping it back and forth in front of her with no real rhythm.

Cass had quickly lost track of AuDy. They hadn’t heard the sound of metal colliding with metal, though, so presumably they’d had the sense to get out of the mechs’ paths.

They advanced slowly, Mako following from above and taking occasional potshots at zombies that got too far from the melee. Cass could just see him engaging the wrong barrel and attracting the attention of everything in a five mile radius, but they weren’t about to tell him to stop. He was annoyed enough at being sidelined without Cass taking his one task away from him.

The team kept pushing forward until they’d cleared the road down to the nearest grocery story. “Aria,” Cass said.

“Got it.” Aria maneuvered the Regent inside the store, blade still drawn.

There were a few minutes of quiet, in which Mako began drifting back down to street level. Cass kept scanning the area, fingers drumming against their dashboard. AuDy had rejoined them at some point and stationed themself by the shop doors, ready to rush in or out as appropriate.

The sound of Aria’s voice over the comms made Cass jump. “That should be all of them.” She couldn’t quite keep a smile from her voice.

Cass was instantly suspicious, but Aria wouldn’t knowingly put Mako in danger, so they just nodded.

“I’m coming in,” Mako said. Cass heard the beginnings of a laugh as he walked through the door before the line went dead.

This wait managed to be even more excruciating than the last. The knowledge that Mako and Aria were scheming together was almost as ominous as the knowledge that the world had ended, however temporarily. It was a lot to deal with while still possibly being in mortal danger.

“Okay, we’re ready,” came Aria’s voice over the comms, still full of poorly-concealed amusement.

Cass sighed, scanned the street one last time, and climbed out of the Megalophile. AuDy nodded as they passed them. It was good to know one of their teammates wouldn’t betray them.

It was clear as soon as Cass got inside what Mako and Aria had been amused by. They stood on either side of a shopping cart looking very pleased with themselves. The cart was piled with makeup and chips and issues of that comic book Mako liked. It did not, so far as Cass could tell, contain anything that even resembled a vegetable. They sighed. “This kind of thing is why we had to come out here in the first place.”

“This place had been picked over pretty badly by the time I got here,” Aria said. “At least this way the trip won’t be a total waste.”

“We may die of malnutrition, but we won’t starve,” Mako added.

“And we’ll be able to blend in with the zombies when our scars start to reopen from lack of Vitamin C,” Cass said dryly.

“That’s the spirit,” Aria said. “Now let’s get this back to the ship.”

“Fine,” Cass said. “I’m looking up other grocery stores as soon as we do, though.”

In the end, they had to hit up another four shops before Cass declared themself content with the pantry’s nutritional content. AuDy didn’t bother to come on these subsequent missions, though they informed the crew sometime after the third store that they’d obtained enough fuel to keep flying for months. The nice thing about the apocalypse was how easy it was to get things. They’d never been this well-prepared before.

Naturally, the first Diaspora ships set up a refugee dome two days later, with a Minerva fleet arriving not long after that. It was probably for the best. None of them had thought to pick up toothpaste.


End file.
